Domodedovo AirHotel Moscow

... be jolted sharply out of it a few hours later by Allie demanding to know if it was me who 'was snoring'. I grumpily denied this and then my sleepy haze was shattered once and for all. Could it really be? Yes the Hippo had returned! Only this time he was bigger and more powerful in the form of a burly Englishman in the next cabin. Yes the next cabin! I decided it would take something special to ignore something this powerful so the Hippo battled it out with my IPod for a few hours.

... out! Incidently, also the site of the only free toilets in all of Moscow!
The adventures continued as we decided to brave the train station and book our tickets for the rest of our trip without the aid (and ridiculous expense) of a travel agent. Luckily, the lovely gentleman in front of us in the queue spoke immaculate English and offered to help us deal with the not so lovely Babushka behind the counter.
So far, this seems to be the theme throughout Moscow. The men are ...

... streets to a crowded Metro - the plan was for me to be 'shown the ropes' - and then be let loose. Ylia entertained me with historical facts and a journey around the great architectual, and historical sites, and we ended up on the truly breathtaking Red Square, St Basil's shining jewel-like in the rain.

More of that when I hurl myself at the sights more seriously but meanwhile, terror on the metro.

I have never been THAT good at ...

... on a cheap bottle of Russian vodka left to us by our Kiwi friend, and walked in search of a venue to watch the final. Red Square was unfortunately closed off due to threat of a protest march that day. So where else to go?? We found a restaurant, made sure they were staying open until the 2am-ish completion of the show, and foolishly ordered more vodka! We had a great time even if nobody else in the venue watched the show with us. As you know Norway totally destroyed ...

... store (another beautiful old building from the late 19th century, now full of expensive designer shops). We travelled around the city on the efficient Moscow metro, a tourist attraction. Every station has it's own style....marble, stained glass windows, chandeliers, mosaics. Witnessed an interesting Russian wedding tradition ...

... in speaking it anyway. Also the train was hot. Was probably 35 degrees in the train and this is Eastern Europe, so there is no air conditioning on the train. All I did was sweat. You sit there doing nothing and you sweat. Didn't do a whole lot but did manage to update my journal (not much else to do on the train) and slept. Went through Ukrainian customs and had no problems then we headed off to the Russian border for their border control. Took about an hour to get ...

... of Russia. Before the trip, I thought I knew Russia, but I was wrong. I was ignorant. Russia is a multi-cultural and fascinating country with a very tough and harsh history where many of their people have suffered. I look forward to visiting again and reconnecting with the new friends I met on this trip.

Erfolgsmeldung kurz vor der Parlamentswahl: VW hat in Russland seine Produktion eröffnet. Wer genauer hinschaut, sieht eine riesige Baustelle und eine kleine graue Halle. In der Halle: zwei Hundert Journalisten, zwei Hundert Gäste, zwei gefühlte Spannferkel und 15 halb fertige Autos. Auf dem verschneiten Parkplatz neben der Halle stehen ein paar Dutzend weitere Autos - die dürfen die TV-Teams aber nicht filmen. In einer "Rekordzeit" habe der VW seine Produktion aufgebaut, sagt von ...

... style rooms. They were clean enough and had hot water, but this was a definite no-frills hotel. Ben and I typically stay in no-frills hostels and have seen a number of conditions along our journey. But remember we were now in the most expensive city in the world. We booked an actual hotel for one night. For the 3 of us this we were paying somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 American Dollars. For 300 a night in the states ...

Arrived 5pm on a public holiday. Fortunately we had booked a taxi in advance (and although very expensive, he spoke broken English and got us to our massive hotel efficiently) - quite sombre - looked like the dead of night. Hotel staff were ...